Senior Principal Data Scientist, NLP

https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job-invite/21462/

Job Title:
Senior Principal Data Scientist, NLP
Job Band
Job number 21462
Principal Senior Data Scientist - NLP
Salary range: Up to £118,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salaryrange for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights
Contract type: permanent contract
Location: London or Salford based
Our comprehensive benefits package includes:
• An employer pension contribution of up to 10%
• 26 days’ annual leave (based on full time hours) + bank holidays and the option to buy/sell additional days
• Contributory lifestyle benefit options including discounts at hundreds of retailers, cycle to work scheme,discounted gym memberships and healthcare schemes
• Employee assistance and well-being programmes
• Learning and development tailored to your role – this could include industry recognised qualifications,coaching and mentoring
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join staff networks including: Women’s Network,National Disability Networks and many more.
Family friendly flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working, job sharing, flexitime and compressedhours can be requested.
We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and especially welcome individuals from underrepresentedgroups.
If you require any reasonable adjustments at any time, please let us know by contacting us onReasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk with the job reference in the subject.
Introduction
BBC R&D’s AI Research Applied Area is focussed on the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligenceacross the BBC. AI Research works closely with other BBC R&D Applied Research Areas, BBC Product andTechnology Groups and senior business stakeholders across the BBC to accelerate Machine Learning basedinnovation.
Reporting to the Head of AI Research, the Senior Principal Data Scientist will lead a team of machine learningresearchers focusing on natural language processing.
As a Senior Principal Data Scientist, you will play a key role in driving technical excellence and innovation. Youwill lead a team of machine learning scientists, providing mentorship and technical guidance while ensuringthat the team’s work aligns with business objectives. This is a hands-on role that involves active hands-oncontribution.
Interview process
HackerRank test for initial screening
· Machine Learning system design interview
· Machine Learning breadth and depth interview
· BBC culture fit and values alignment interview
Responsibilities
• Provide technical leadership for projects involving fine tuning / alignment of large language models
• Lead the design and development of scalable generative language and multimodal models and algorithms.
• Mentor and guide a team of individual contributors, fostering a culture of excellence and continuousimprovement.
• Set clear expectations and create a positive work environment, collaborating closely with engineering and
management teams.
• Contribute to the AI Research Team’s portfolio by publishing novel research in top-tier journals andconferences.
Are you the right candidate
• Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Computer Science or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in machine learning, with a focus on NLP.
• Proven track record of research excellence and innovation in computer vision or NLP.
• Deep understanding of machine learning systems, from concept through to deployment, with the ability tocommunicate effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proficiency with machine learning frameworks, such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Strong expertise in deep learning algorithms, model architectures, and the AI development lifecycle.
• Hands-on experience with the latest technologies and models in NLP.
• Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with software development best practices.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Passion for innovation.
About the BBC
The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC fordifferent reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority considerationmeans for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone elseat risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.
We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave areimportant to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.
Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual'sunique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.
We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contributeto our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the betterable we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.
We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age,gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/orbelief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements preventotherwise.
To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.